Category: Campus life

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz�s plan to charge a $5 fee for admittance to State Street on Halloween is scheduled to face a final vote by the City Council Tuesday night.

A 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student injured in a fall at a party in the 1300 block of Randall Court early Friday remained in critical condition late Friday, the Madison Police Department said.The man was with several friends at a party and had been drinking much of the night Thursday, police said.

There are a lot of things on the minds of UW students this weekend.
“Getting all your books together, getting used to all your new roommates,” said Josh Schleicher, a student who lives in an off-campus house.

For Elizabeth Waters Hall resident Rachel Netols, there was a difference in the air compared to last year. The hall had a few new residents.”It’s weird to smell them,” said Netols, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore. “They smell like boys.”

From the required reading to the gotta-have gear, the transition to college seems to require a lot of credit card transactions.

“I don’t think it’s lavish with what we’re getting for her, it’s what every kid moves in with,” says parent Marie Ganser.

The average UW student graduates with about $19,000 of debt from student loans.

Tack on credit card debt and the average student is graduating more than $20,000 in the hole.

Susan Fischer is the director of Student Financial Services on campus

MADISON, Wis. — As the University of Wisconsin-Madison kicks off a new school year amid a spike in recent downtown violence, local authorities are teaming up with school officials to keep the campus safe.

The dorms are filling with new students, and the university is wasting no time spreading the word about downtown violence.

Jose Delgado, a house fellow in Witte Hall, has been talking with students about campus safety since their first day.

MADISON, Wis. — A popular University of Wisconsin-Madison dorm has dropped its women-only rule and gone co-ed for the first time in its 66-year history.

Many students seemed to be dreading the new essay, but some SAT takers this year say it wasn’t so bad.

Are today’s kids getting dumber? The short answer: no. But a seven-point drop in SAT scores this year, the biggest in 31 years, has raised that and other questions about what, if anything, the scores say about the latest batch of high school graduates.

After fire killed Georgetown University senior Daniel Rigby in a basement furnace room that he rented as a bedroom, Washington, D.C., inspectors found 10 safety code violations in the row house.Their citations ranged from too much junk to blocked exits. Such safety problems are common in fires that kill college students.

College and government officials are turning their attention to fire safety.

University of Dayton senior and football player Austin Cohen had been drinking. But he stopped and went to bed early one December night six years ago. The next day was important: His older brother Dustin, then a linebacker for the St. Louis Rams, was to play in a televised NFL game. One of his housemates, a close friend, was trying to impress some girls by setting paper towels on fire on the stairs leading to the upper floors.What was meant as a prank quickly became a full-blown fire.

It is two weeks before classes begin at UW-Madison and I’m nowhere near campus. I’m sitting in the living room of my parents’ new house in Pensacola, Fla., decompressing from a summer spent working in “the real world.” In the meantime, I’ve been given a story assignment that involves imparting wisdom to a group of college freshmen who are only two or three years my junior.

Madison, Wis. – Three years ago, entrepreneurs Nathan Lustig and John Tucker were still in high school, blissfully unconcerned with the oft-criticized textbook exchange at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MADISON, Wis. — A trio of University of Wisconsin-Madison students said they will try to enlist in the military and not hide the fact they are openly gay.

Derek House and two others said they want to serve their country but want to challenge the 13-year-old Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

In a sharp about-face, the students who were threatening to move Halloween to Langdon Street are now backing Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s plan to charge admission to the annual State Street celebration.

“We’ve begun working with the city now and we’re trying to evolve State Street into an event the students can take ownership in and be happy with,” Tom Wangard said this morning in a telephone interview.

Megan Twohey of the Journal Sentinel staff asked five sophomores from Wisconsin colleges to offer incoming freshmen advice that they won’t get from guidebooks, parents or freshman orientation. Here’s what they had to say:

For the 30 years I’ve lived in Madison, it’s been a Wonderland, from the riot of sudden spring bloom to the lingering whiteness of winter snow.

But right now I feel like Alice must have felt in her Wonderland. The most uniquely Madisonian day of the year, Halloween, has turned into a nightmare, and instead of facing it head-on, we seem to have settled for “Off with her head!”

Bartenders and pizza makers aren’t the only ones eager to separate students from their money as Madison colleges and universities resume classes for the fall semester.

(MADISON) Madison Police say campus safety measures will be even more crucial this year. Public information officer Mike Hanson says the string of assaults in the downtown Madison area does raise safety concerns with thousands of UW-Madison freshmen moving in next week. He says Madison Police will be involved with educating these freshmen, as well as students in general, about how to keep themselves safe.

The man who followed a UW student , through a propped open door, into her Langdon Street apartment building early Wednesday morning did not rob her. Madison Police say they believe his intent was sexual assault. The victim screamed, fought and got away, but not before he punched her 8-10 times in the face.

Mike Zakarian is president of the student government at Emmanuel College and co-captain of the baseball team. He hopes to go to graduate school in education. But he’s also a whiz at online poker. He’s so good that, at age 21, he won $12,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where last month he took home $15,500 more.

With the controversy that led up to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of over-the-counter sales of Plan B to adult women, it’s no surprise that Thursday’s decision prompted a mixed reaction from those in Wisconsin.

After a series of violent attacks and robberies on Madison streets over the summer, students starting a new semester at U-W Madison are being urged to take the issue of personal safety more seriously than ever.

27 News has learned Madison police officials are expected to release a composite sketch of a suspect in the vicious beating of a UW-Madison student in her Langdon Street apartment building.

Authorities have described the suspect as Caucasian, about 30, 6’2”, thinly built with shoulder length hair.

A family from the Town of Windsor is on a mission to set up a house at the UW Madison campus for young college men addicted to drugs or alcohol.

The house is in memory of their teenage son Aaron Meyer.

A UW-Madison student was beaten early Wednesday in a bizarre and apparently random attack by a stranger inside her apartment building.
The 20-year-old woman told police she was walking home alone in the 100 block of Langdon Street about 1:15 a.m. when she noticed a man watching her. She said she initially avoided the person by crossing the street to a better lighted area and then visiting a friend’s apartment.

As college students across the country return to campuses over the next few weeks, more and more will be moving into church-sponsored dorms — a trend that can trace its roots to the corner of College Avenue and Bancroft Way in Berkeley.

(UNDATED) Three schools in the University of Wisconsin System have been recognized as top places for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Madison, La Crosse and Milwaukee all made the list, which included a general listing of schools as well as a top 20 ranking.

The 100-school list was published in the book “The Advocate College Guide For LGBT Students,” which came out in August. Erik Trekell is the director of the LGBT Campus Center for UW-Madison. He says Madison was very close to making the top 20 campus ranking, which contained five other Big Ten schools. (Third item.)

Madison: A 20 year old UW student was attacked and beaten early Wednesday morning in her Langdon street apartment building.

This latest attack comes as more students move back to campus for the start of classes.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police are investigating a violent early-morning incident that occurred along Langdon Street.

Authorities said a 20-year-old woman was followed into her apartment complex in the 100 block of Langdon Street at about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

UW-Madison was chosen as one of the 100 best campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students by a new guide for LGBT students.
“The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students,” released Aug. 1, rated campuses on a 20-point checklist.

Chin up, UW. You may not be the nation’s top party school, but you can drown your disappointment in beer.

UW-Madison got knocked off the top of this year’s Princeton Review list of party schools, coming in a mere fourth, but took first place for beer drinking, knocking Indiana University from the foamy pedestal.

MADISON, Wis. — It may have dropped on the list of party schools but the UW is taking honors for its diversity.

The UW Madison has been recognized as among the top schools in the country for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison is no longer the country’s best party school — at least according to the Princeton Review survey.

After a year as the reigning champ of campus revelry, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has dropped to fourth place among the nation’s top 10 party schools. [Fifth item in Regional Briefs.]

George Dreckmann is the recycling coordinator for the Madison Streets & Recycling Department, as well as the administrator of the Madison Stuff Exchange. Well-known for his gregarious personality and his commitment to salvaging all that is reusable, Dreckmann marshals the city’s forces every August to tackle the more than 1.6 million pounds of garbage that piles up every moving day.

MADISON, Wis. — It’s been a rough summer for the Cows On Parade in Madison.

At least 20 cows have been vandalized since the parade started in June.